Wall Street rallies as crude prices jump 4 percent

NEW YORK

Wall Street rallied Tuesday after crude oil prices rose 4 percent to reach their highest level since last December.

The Dow soared 164 points, or 0.94 percent, to reach 17,721 -- marking its biggest daily gain in a month. The S&P 500 added 19 points to increase to 2,061 and the Nasdaq rose 38 points to 4,872.

Oil prices jumped after the Energy Information Administration said it expects global petroleum consumption to increase in 2016 and 2017. 'In addition, Russian news agency, Interfax, claimed that Moscow and Riyadh agreed to freeze their oil output levels before a Qatar crude producers meeting later this week.

American benchmark rose as high as $42.25 per barrel, while the global benchmark also climbed to a high mark of $44.80.

Stocks of American energy companies saw big gains with the rise in oil prices.

Chesapeake Energy jumped 35 percent, while Southwestern Energy Co. had its stocks rise by 16 percent. Marathon Oil Corp's stocks had a 13 percent increase.